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There’s Nothing More Important Than Your Electronics

Mike Iaconelli has had a passion for fishing since childhood and has been competing in fishing tournaments since high school. Since that time, Mike has either won or nearly won, nearly every major award in tournament bass fishing – most notably the 2003 Bassmaster Classic and 2006 Angler Of The Year awards.

“You’ve heard me say it before, but I’ll say it again,” Iaconellii said, “There’s nothing more important than your electronics. They are your underwater eyes. Good sonar will tell you what’s under your boat and where you should be fishing. The importance of that is obvious. The best lure in the world, fished with the best tackle in the world, from the best boat in the world won’t do a thing if there isn’t a bass living in the neighborhood. You can’t catch them if they aren’t there.

Almost every bass I’ve ever caught — at least 99.9 percent of them — have been caught where there’s a change of some kind. It might be a drop, a hole, a slope or an isolated piece of cover or structure like a rock or a stump. But, there’s always a change. That’s the one universal rule of bass fishing. The only way I know to consistently find those changes is with sonar, and the best electronics I know about are made by Lowrance.

To be fair, I have the real high-end stuff. My units are HDS Gen3 and HDS Carbon fishfinder/chart-plotter displays with two 9-inch and two 12-inch screens. You might not need that if you’re a recreational angler who only fishes on the weekends. Something smaller and less technical will probably do the job for you. Many units can be purchased for as little as a couple of hundred dollars. Actually, they have one super good unit for right at $100. It’ll show you the bottom, give you the water temperature and work at 55 mph. I want you to understand that what I am saying isn’t something I’m telling you to do, but it is something I would do myself. The unit that I have on my Hobie kayak is the Elite-5 TI. It only cost a few hundred bucks, and it works great. I have fun with my kayak, and I catch a lot of bass out of it. That unit is never turned off because it shows me what I need to see; the bottom hardness, the depth, water temperature and structure on the side-scanning and down-scanning StructureScan views.”

Designed for anglers looking for one unit to do almost everything, the Elite-Ti is designed to meet the current and future demands of the market. With the amount of proven fishfinder and Chart-plotter features being packed into a single, affordable display, users are requiring the largest screen available to allow them to easily and effectively view all the most important data at once. And with the easier-to-use touchscreen, anglers are getting more out of their fishfinders, because the units are easier to learn and use. Whereas 5-inch displays used to be the strongest sellers in terms of volume, recent trends show that 7- and 9-inch displays are the current favorite, and this will likely grow to 12-inch displays in the next two years.

Including cutting-edge features like an easy-to-use touchscreen interface, Bluetooth and wireless connectivity, proven Lowrance navigation technology and high-performance sonar – including CHIRP, Broadband Sounder and StructureScan HD with SideScan and DownScan Imaging – the Elite-Ti Series displays offer incredible value at an affordable price. CHIRP sonar offers improved fish-target separation and screen clarity, while the StructureScan HD sonar imaging system with exclusive Lowrance DownScan Imaging delivers photo-like images of fish-holding structure on both sides and directly beneath the boat.

Bluetooth and wireless connectivity also provide control of single or dual Power-Pole shallow water anchor installations, as well as access to the GoFree Link App, which allows anglers to view and control the display from an iPad or Android tablet.

With enhanced sonar performance, trolling motor control, built-in- high definition charts, waypoint sharing and advanced charting options, the Elite-Ti Series offers features and a price point that competitors can’t match. The easy-to-use touchscreen is a Lowrance exclusive, as is the TotalScan transducer capable of Broadband, CHIRP sonar, StructureScan HD and DownScan Imaging, all in one unit. The enhanced sonar performance of the Elite-Ti offers better clarity of targets and greater sonar range where it counts. Simply put, the Elite-Ti finds fish faster than all the rest. The Elite-Ti Series is also priced $300-500 less than comparable units.

“Don’t be discouraged if you can’t justify spending thousands of dollars on fancy GPS and sonar units. Check out the offerings from Lowrance. You’ll be surprised at what you can get for very little money.”

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